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Rebecca Caudill Award 4th-8th
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Information about the Rebecca Caudill Award.
The Rebecca Caudill Award is a student choice award for 4th-8th grade students in Illinois. To vote in February, a student needs to read at least three titles from the current year's list. Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award
2013 Nominees
Anything but Typical. Baskin, Nora Raleigh. 2009. (Gr. 5-8)
Jason, a twelve-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer, relates what his life is like as he tries to make sense of his world.
As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth. Perkins, Lynne Rae. 2010. (Gr. 6-8)
A teenaged boy encounters one comedic calamity after another when his train strands him in the middle of nowhere, and everything comes down to luck.
Black Radishes. Meyer, Susan Lynn. 2010. (Gr. 5-8)
Gustave and his family, who are Jewish, are forced to flee to the countryside when the Germans occupy France, but to reach Free France which would enable them to escape to America, Gustave must undertake a risky venture into the occupied zone.
Born to Fly. Ferrari, Michael. 2009. (Gr. 4-7)
In 1942, an eleven-year-old girl who longs to be a pilot and her family try to manage their lives in Rhode Island when the father goes to fight in World War II.
Bounce. Friend, Natasha. 2007. (Gr. 7-8)
Thirteen-year-old Evyn's world is turned upside-down when her father, widowed since she was a toddler, suddenly decides to remarry a woman with six children, move with Ev and her brother from Maine to Boston, and enroll her in private school.
Countdown. Wiles, Deborah. 2010. (Gr. 5-8)
Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that's hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Worst of all, everyone is just waiting for a bomb to fall. It's 1962, and it seems the whole country is living in fear.
Dark Life. Falls, Kat. 2010. (Gr. 5-8)
When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has always lived on the ocean floor, joins Topside girl Gemma in the frontier's underworld to seek and stop outlaws who threaten his home, they learn that the government may pose an even greater threat.
The Graveyard Book. Gaiman, Neil. 2008. (Gr. 5-8)
Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.
How to Survive Middle School. Gephart, Donna. 2010. (Gr. 4-8)
When thirteen-year-old David Greenberg's best friend makes the start of middle school even worse than he feared it could be, David becomes friends with Penny, who shares his love of television shows and posts one of their skits on YouTube, making them wildly popular--online, at least.
Inside Out & Back Again. Lai, Thanhha. 2011. (Gr. 4-8)
Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
Love, Aubrey. LaFleur, Suzanne. 2009. (Gr. 4-7)
While living with her Gram in Vermont, eleven-year-old Aubrey writes letters as a way of dealing with losing her father and sister in a car accident, and then being abandoned by her grief-stricken mother.
Ninth Ward. Rhodes, Jewell Parker. 2010. (Gr. 5-8)
In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.
One Crazy Summer. Williams-Garcia, Rita. 2010. (Gr. 6-8)
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
Out of My Mind. Draper, Sharon M. 2010. (Gr. 4-8)
Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.
Shooting Kabul. Senzai, N. H. 2010. (Gr. 4-8)
Escaping from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the summer of 2001, eleven-year-old Fadi and his family immigrate to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Fadi schemes to return to the Pakistani refugee camp where his little sister was accidentally left behind.
Smile. Telgemeier, Raina. 2010. (Gr. 4-8)
From sixth grade through tenth, Raina copes with a variety of dental problems that affect her appearance and how she feels about herself.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Angleberger, Tom. 2010. (Gr. 4-8)
Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends describe their interactions with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird classmate Dwight, as they try to figure out whether or not the puppet can really predict the future. Includes instructions for making Origami Yoda.
Trash. Mulligan, Andy. 2010. (Gr. 7-8)
Fourteen-year-olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country's dump.
Turtle in Paradise. Holm, Jennifer L. 2010. (Gr. 4-6)
In 1935, when her mother gets a job housekeeping for a woman who does not like children, eleven-year-old Turtle is sent to stay with relatives she has never met in faraway Key West, Florida.
The Year Money Grew on Trees. Hawkins, Aaron. 2010. (Gr. 5-8)
In early 1980s New Mexico, thirteen-year-old Jackson Jones recruits his cousins and sisters to help tend an elderly neighbor's neglected apple orchard for the chance to make big money and, perhaps, to own the orchard.
After reading a book from the Rebecca Caudill list either ask Mrs. Krouse for a bookmark to record your answers to a few simple questions to help you remember the book until time to vote in February, or download a set of three response bookmarks --- here.
